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Visa Europe launches international innovation hub

Visa Europe has launched Visa Europe Collab which it says will offer start-ups and technology entrepreneurs the “insight, tools and connections to forge the technologies and services that will transform citizens’ interactions with payments”.

Steve Perry, founder and co-creator of the project, explains: “Visa is in a unique position to help innovators develop and scale their ideas. We have 50 years of industry expertise as well as the connections and scale offered by more than 3,000 European member banks and financial organisations. Now, through our innovation hub, we are creating a network of partners and a community that will help us provide the mentoring, advice and experience start-ups and entrepreneurs need to get their ideas off the drawing board and into the commercial world.”

Based in London, Visa Europe Collab expects to take a minimum of 20 ideas through its 100-day innovation funnel in its first year, from initial scoping and qualification, through market testing and design to proof of concept.

Of those completed proofs of concept, the best commercially viable services will be handed back into the main body of the Visa business where they’ll be nurtured into fully grown services that can be rolled out to Visa member banks, retailers and consumers across Europe.